Palacios, R-Saipan, asked his fellow Saipan Republican Rep. Ray N. Yumul to request an explanation from OIA.
The $5.17 million Compact-Impact funding that the CNMI gets every year since 2005 is factored in the latest government budget of $148 million.
The same amount is being considered for FY 2010 which starts on Oct. 1.
Yumul told the House the official report that reached his office shows that for FY 2010 Hawaii will gain $650,000 more in Compact-Impact funds and Guam will gain $2.6 million because the population of Micronesians that migrated to their islands has dramatically increased during recent years.
The CNMI used to host more than 5,000 Micronesians, based on the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau’s statistics.
This year, however, the U.S. Census said the Micronesians’ number in the CNMI dropped sharply because many of them have relocated to the more economically affluent Hawaii and Guam.
During his recent visit to Saipan, Nikulao Pula, Interior’s acting deputy assistant secretary, said the number of migrants currently living in the CNMI from the Federated States of Micronesia, which is made up of the states of Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae and Yap, the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau, had significantly dropped.
Pula said their dwindling population here is directly connected to the islands’ continuing economic slump.
Under America’s Compacts of Free Agreement with the FSM, RMI and Palau, these independent nations’ citizens are free to migrate to U.S. and its territories.
In return, the federal government reimburses U.S. jurisdictions that host FAS citizens.
This financial assistance is called Compact-Impact funds.
